Can You Find Good Resale Items At Thrift Stores

Money Everywhere

How To Find Thrift Store Haul Items To Resale

A few years back what I started looking into making some extra cash offline. There were many options available but not all of them were practical. Some required a large sum of money to get off of the ground and some others required that I do a lot of heavy lifting which was way more work than I was looking for.

I searched Youtube for ways to make extra cash and found a video of a woman bragging about her thrift store hauls and how much she making from the deals that she was finding. I though to myself "wait a minute, can you really find good items at thrift stores that you can resale?" It turns out the answer is yes.

Thrift Store Treasure

The following morning I took $20 with me to the local thrift store to see if I could score a deal or two. I'm the type of person where I feel like if someone else can succeed at something I can too. So off I went to the thrift store. I like antique glassware such as milk glass and depression glass and that is what I decided to look for. I really needed to find some great items that I could resell. As I browsed around I notice an older woman who was looking at the bottom of all of the glassware and dishes. This was the same thing that I was doing so I tried not to make it obvious she may have a little resell competition. I could tell she was picking. Picking is the term used to describe the process of buying and reselling old or used items.

I was at the thrift store for about 30 minutes just browsing around. I found a couple of items that had potential for making a good return on my investment. The first item I found was a small neon Chicago White Sox sign. It was the kind that you would see in a man cave hanging over a billiard table. The cost was $5.99. The other item was a Juliska Japan tureen or soup bowl. I bought it for $7 because it had a small chip on the rim of the bowl under the lid.

The Exact Item I Found In The Thrift Store

Source

Why Buy From Thrift Stores

The reason I purchased the Jaliska Japan soup server was because I knew a little bit about the company. I had found in prior research on Ebay that they had several individual pieces for sale on their website at prices upwards of $100. When I am not out picking for finds I will spend an hour or two looking thru highest sold items on Ebay based on the highest sold price to find the items people are looking for and paying the most money for. I also look to familiarize myself with makers marks and collection patterns so that I can instantly spot a good piece.

So my total cost minus a little gas was only $12. IF I could not make back $12 on these two items then I was doomed to never shop another thrift store again.

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Thrift Store Finds Sells And Profits

Thrift Store Shopping Research

As soon as I got home I searched Ebay for a similar neon sign but didn't find one that small size for any Major League baseball team. So I decided to just list that as an auction style listing and start the bid from $0.99 and see what happened. Worst case scenario I lost $5. But I do that on fast food very often that sometimes tastes horrible. So I was willing to take a chance on making a profit.

Next I checked Ebay for the tureen and while I did not find the exact piece I found a slightly larger serving bowl that had sold for almost $70. It was part of the same collection as my tureen called "Jardins du Monde." I then searched their website and found the exact piece that I had and to my shock they were still selling it and it was listed on the website for $68. At that point I knew that I had and item that could make me a few bucks but I was concerned that the chip on the bowl would make it an almost unwanted item. But I decided to take my chances anyway. So I listed both items for 3 day auctions and waited.

Getting Paid From My Thrift Store Finds

Three days passed and both items sold. Total take: $35. $18.50 for the tureen and $16.50 for the neon sign. That's a $23.00 profit for an hours work. Now try and make that blogging online! Even if you divide that up over 3 days it still comes out to $7.66 per day. My hubpages earnings have not even come close to that per day yet. So needless to say I have done this many times since then.

Thrift Store Resell Shopping 101: Make A Profit

Have you ever bought items at a thrirt store and resold them.

The Thrift Store Resale ATM

Whenever I need extra cash to fund a project I hit the thrift stores for a deal or two. I have since expanded my categories of items that I buy and sell and I have since found an item that is in abundance at all thrift stores that I manage to make an average $18 per item profit on. Now that I have honed my skills and know what sells for me I use the resale thrift shops as my new ATM.

My Other Thrift Store Hubs

How To Find Out What Thrift Store Finds Are WorthWith the state of the economy today there are many people searching for ways to make more money due to loss of a job or some loss of household income. Some of them have turned to thrift stores as source of cheap goods that can be bought and resold...